The longtime behavior of a nonlinear Reissner–Mindlin plate with exponentially decreasing memory kernels

In this paper we investigate the longtime behavior of the mathematical model of a homogeneous viscoelastic plate based on Reissner–Mindlin deformation shear assumptions. According to the approximation procedure due to Lagnese for the Kirchhoff viscoelastic plate, the resulting motion equations for the vertical displacement and the angle deflection of vertical fibers are derived in the framework of the theory of linear viscoelasticity. Assuming that in general both Lame’s functions, λ and μ, depend on time, the coupling terms between the equations of displacement and deflection depend on hereditary contributions. We associate to the model a nonlinear semigroup and show the behavior of the energy when time goes on. In particular, assuming that the kernels λ and μ decay exponentially, and not too weakly with respect to the physical properties considered in the model, then the energy decays uniformly with respect to the initial conditions; i.e., we prove the existence of an absorbing set for the semigroup associated to the model. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved